Overview and methodology Data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version 3

Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories Overview and methodology Data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version (final) Weidema B P, Bauer C, Hischier R, Mutel C, Nemecek T, Reinhard J, Vadenbo C O, Wernet G ecoinvent report No 1(v3) St Gallen, 2013-05-06 Citation: Weidema B P, Bauer C, Hischier R, Mutel C, Nemecek T, Reinhard J, Vadenbo C O, Wernet G (2013) Overview and methodology Data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version Ecoinvent Report 1(v3) St Gallen: The ecoinvent Centre © Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories / 2009-2013 Acknowledgements and structure Acknowledgements v3 This data quality guideline builds upon the previous ecoinvent reports and (Frischknecht et al 2007b, 2007c) A short history of the ecoinvent database is reported in Chapter 17 Helpful comments and elaborations to draft versions of this document have been received from HansJörg Althaus, Andreas Ciroth, Gabor Doka, Pascal Lesage, Jannick Schmidt, Sangwon Suh, and Frank Werner We also wish to thank our colleagues Emilia Moreno Ruiz, Bernhard Steubing and Karin Treyer as well as our software partner IFU Hamburg for their huge efforts in converting these data quality guidelines into practice in the form of the ecoinvent database version Structure of this guideline This guideline provides an introduction to the ecoinvent database developed by the Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories (Chapter 1), the applied LCA methodology (Chapter 2), and the general structure of the database (Chapter 3) The main part of the report is the specific quality guidelines (chapters to 11), established in order to ensure a coherent data acquisition and reporting across the various activity areas and data providers involved This encompasses definitions of the different types of datasets, the level of detail required, how completeness is ensured, good practice for documentation, naming conventions, and rules for the reporting of uncertainty Chapters 12 and 13 describe the procedures for validation, review, and embedding new datasets into the database The calculation procedures for linking datasets into product systems, and for arriving at the accumulated results for product systems, are described in Chapter 14 Chapter 15 and 16 give advice to the database users and those who wish to contribute to the database Finally, Chapter 17 gives a short history of the database development Examples from the actual applications in the database will be available on the ecoinvent web-site iii Table of Contents Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V3 III STRUCTURE OF THIS GUIDELINE III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV INTRODUCTION TO THE ECOINVENT DATABASE V3 1.1 1.2 The purpose of the ecoinvent database Fundamental changes in version & differences to version 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.2.5 1.2.6 1.2.7 1.3 1.4 1.5 System models The linking of datasets into system models Regionalisation Parameterisation Global datasets Parent/child datasets and inheritance No cut-offs The editorial board and the review procedure Using ecoinvent version Supplying data to ecoinvent version LCA METHODOLOGY 2.1 2.2 LCI, LCIA and LCA Attributional and consequential modelling THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE ECOINVENT DATABASE TYPES OF DATASETS 11 4.1 Activity datasets, exchanges and meta-data 11 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.2 Global reference activity datasets and parent/child relationships between datasets 13 4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.3 4.4 Geographical localisation 14 Temporal specification and time series 16 Macro-economic scenarios 16 Market activities and transforming activities 16 Linking transforming activities directly or via markets 18 4.4.1 4.4.2 4.4.3 4.4.4 4.4.5 4.4.6 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 Exchanges from and to the environment 12 Reference products 12 By-products and wastes 13 Direct links between transforming activities 18 Linking via markets 19 Geographical market segmentation 19 Temporal market segmentation 20 Customer segmentation 20 Market niches 21 Production and supply mixes 21 Transport 22 Trade margins and product taxes/subsidies 22 Treatment activities 23 Treatment markets 24 iv Table of Contents 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 Recycling 25 Infrastructure / Capital goods 25 Operation, use situations and household activities 27 Impact assessment data 27 4.13.1 4.13.2 Impact assessment datasets 27 Impact assessment results 28 4.14 Interlinked datasets 28 4.15 Accumulated system datasets 29 LEVEL OF DETAIL 30 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Unit process data level 30 Confidential datasets 31 Sub-dividing activities with combined production 31 Production volumes 32 Technology level of activities 33 Properties of exchanges 34 5.6.1 5.6.2 5.6.3 5.6.4 5.6.5 5.6.6 5.6.7 5.7 5.8 5.9 Mass and elemental composition 34 Fossil and non-fossil carbon 35 Energy content 35 Density 36 Price of products and wastes 37 Allocation properties 38 The designation “Defining value” 39 Use of variables within datasets 39 Text variables 40 No double-counting 40 5.9.1 5.9.2 5.9.3 5.9.4 5.9.5 5.9.6 5.9.7 5.9.8 Activity datasets 40 General principles for elementary exchanges 41 Resources 41 Airborne particulates 41 Volatile organic compounds - VOC 42 Other air pollutants 42 Sum parameters for carbon compounds (BOD5, COD, DOC, TOC) 43 Other sum parameters (AOX, etc.) 43 5.10 No cut-offs 43 COMPLETENESS 45 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 6.10 6.11 Stoichiometrics 45 Mass balances 45 Energy balances 45 Monetary balances 46 Elementary exchanges 47 Water 47 Land occupation and land transformation 47 Noise 52 Incidents and accidents 52 Litter 52 Economic externalities 53 v Table of Contents 6.12 Social externalities 53 GOOD PRACTICE FOR DOCUMENTATION 54 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Detail of documentation 54 Images 54 Copyright 54 Authorship and acknowledgements 55 7.4.1 7.4.2 7.4.3 7.4.4 7.5 7.6 Referencing sources 56 Version management 56 LANGUAGE 58 8.1 8.2 Commissioner 55 Data generator 55 Author (Data entry by) 55 Open access sponsors 55 Default language 58 Language versions 58 NAMING CONVENTIONS 59 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 General 59 Activities 59 Intermediate exchanges / Products and wastes 60 Elementary exchanges / Exchanges from and to the environment 61 9.4.1 9.4.2 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 9.10 9.11 9.12 Land transformation and occupation 62 Environmental compartments 62 Synonyms 64 Units 64 Classifications 66 Tags 67 Geographical locations 67 Persons 69 Other master files 69 Variables 69 10 UNCERTAINTY 70 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Default values for basic uncertainty 74 Additional uncertainty via data quality indicators 75 Limitations of the uncertainty assessment 77 Monte-Carlo simulation and results 78 11 SPECIAL SITUATIONS 79 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 Situations with more than one reference product 79 Additional macro-economic scenarios 80 Branded datasets 81 Constrained markets 81 Import, export, market balances, and national balancing 86 Speciality productions 91 vi Table of Contents 11.7 11.8 11.9 11.10 Downstream changes caused by differences in product quality 92 Outlook: Packaging 94 Outlook: Final consumption patterns 97 Linking across time 98 11.10.1 Lifetime information / Stock additions 98 11.10.2 Long-term emissions 99 11.11 Using properties of reference products as variables 100 11.12 Market averages of properties 102 11.13 Use of transfer coefficients 102 12 VALIDATION AND REVIEW 103 12.1 Validation 103 12.2 Review of dataset and documentation 104 12.2.1 12.2.2 Types of editors 104 The flow of a dataset through the editorial process 105 12.3 “Fast track” review for smaller changes 107 12.4 Confidentiality 107 12.5 On-site auditing 107 13 EMBEDDING NEW DATASETS INTO THE DATABASE 108 14 SYSTEM MODELS AND COMPUTATION OF ACCUMULATED SYSTEM DATASETS 110 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Rules common to both classes of system models 110 System models with linking to average current suppliers 111 System models with linking to unconstrained suppliers 112 Modelling principles for joint production 113 14.4.1 14.4.2 Models with partitioning 113 Models with substitution 118 14.5 Interlinked datasets 121 14.6 Models with substitution in the ecoinvent database 124 14.6.1 14.6.2 14.6.3 The “Substitution, consequential, long-term” model 124 Substitution, constrained by-products 126 Outlook: Other models with substitution 127 14.7 Models with partitioning in the ecoinvent database 128 14.7.1 14.7.2 14.7.3 14.7.4 14.7.5 14.7.6 Revenue allocation 128 Dry mass allocation (for mass flow analysis; not for LCA) 128 Carbon allocation (not for LCA) 130 “True value” allocation (ecoinvent default) 131 Allocation corrections 131 Outlook: Other models with partitioning 134 14.8 Computing of LCI results 134 15 USER ADVICE ON THE RESULTS 136 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 LCI, LCIA and LCA results 136 Legal disclaimer 136 Choice of system model 136 Uncertainty information 139 How to reproduce and quote ecoinvent data in case studies 139 vii Table of Contents 16 CONTRIBUTING TO THE ECOINVENT DATABASE 141 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 Individual data providers 141 National data collection initiatives 141 Active and passive authorship 142 Reporting errors / suggesting improvements 142 17 HISTORY OF THE ECOINVENT DATABASE 144 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 The origin 144 ecoinvent data v1.01 to v1.3 144 ecoinvent data v2.0 to 2.2 144 ecoinvent data v3.0 145 ANNEX A THE BOUNDARY TO THE ENVIRONMENT 146 ANNEX B PARENT/CHILD DATASETS (INHERITANCE) 148 B.1 Reference datasets 148 B.2 Inheritance rules 148 ABBREVIATIONS 151 STANDARD TERMINOLOGY USED IN THE ECOINVENT NETWORK (GLOSSARY) 152 REFERENCES 155 INDEX 159 viii Introduction to the ecoinvent database v3 Introduction to the ecoinvent database v3 This chapter offers a short introduction to the ecoinvent version database It begins by explaining the purpose of the database and our reasons for updating the successful ecoinvent version and introducing a new version number It then describes the most important changes and fundamentally new concepts of version in a brief summary, aimed especially at users accustomed to the database version 2, referencing the more detailed descriptions in the following chapters The chapter ends with two sections on working with ecoinvent 3, the first from a user’s perspective, the second with additional information for data providers 1.1 The purpose of the ecoinvent database The Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories (the ecoinvent Centre) has the mission to promote the use and good practice of life cycle inventory analysis through supplying life cycle inventory (LCI) data to support assessment of the environmental and socio-economic impact of decisions The strategic objective is to provide the most relevant, reliable, transparent and accessible LCI data for users worldwide The ecoinvent database comprises LCI data covering all economic activities Each activity dataset describes an activity at a unit process level The complete list of all names of datasets, elementary exchanges, and of all regional codes is available at www.ecoinvent.org Consistent and coherent LCI datasets for different human activities make it easier to perform life cycle assessment (LCA) studies, and increase the credibility and acceptance of the LCA results The assured quality of the life cycle data and the user-friendly access to the database are prerequisites to establish LCA as a reliable tool for environmental assessment that will support an Integrated Product Policy Data quality is maintained by a rigorous validation and review system The document at hand reports the data quality guidelines applied The ecoinvent LCI datasets are intended as background data for LCA studies where problem- and case-specific foreground data are supplied by the LCA practitioner The LCI and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results of ecoinvent datasets may be used for comparative assessments with the aim to identify environmentally preferable goods or services, but should not be used without considering the relevance and completeness of the data for the specific assessment The ecoinvent datasets may also be useful as background datasets for studies in material flow accounting and general equilibrium modelling The ecoinvent Centre is interested in a dialogue with such user groups, to improve the usability of the datasets in such contexts outside the narrower LCA field 1.2 Fundamental changes in version & differences to version Our starting point for the development of version of the ecoinvent database was the successful version 2, and our focus has been to ensure that version will continue to satisfy the needs of LCA practitioners At the same time, the new version should allow significant advancements concerning data management, globalisation, and flexibility One of the ways of achieving this was an overhaul of the underlying structure of ecoinvent Since the initial versions of the ecoinvent database, database management has grown more complex To ensure that the database can continue to grow without problems, several changes were implemented to allow an easier inclusion of new processes and alternative system models into the database Other changes facilitate future updates of data The development of ecoinvent, from its origins as a Swiss national database to a truly global database today, places new demands on the calculation software and the data format The ongoing discussion on different modelecoinvent-report No 1 Introduction to the ecoinvent database v3 ling approaches (e.g allocation vs substitution, average vs unconstrained suppliers) highlights the need for a flexible data structure that can easily be adapted to different modelling needs, while ensuring the consistency of the ecoinvent data And of course, version continues to increase our supply of reliable and transparent inventory data For the development of ecoinvent version 3, the ecoSpold data format has been extended and updated, so while ecoinvent version and version used the ecoSpold data format, ecoinvent version uses the ecoSpold data format The specification of the new data format and a converter from ecoSpold to ecoSpold are available at www.ecoinvent.org, along with the freeware ‘ecoEditor for ecoinvent version 3’, which allows users to view, create, and modify ecoSpold files, and submit them for review The update of the data format was necessary for the implementation of several new concepts in the way data are stored and linked, such as: 1.2.1 System models Newly introduced is the distinction between the unlinked ecoinvent datasets and the linked system models In the ecoinvent database version 2, only one system model existed, following an attributional approach, using allocation rules for multi-output processes according to the recommendations of the individual data providers The difference in version is that there are now several system models, all of which are used to create fully independent and self-contained model implementations out of the same unlinked ecoinvent data As an ecoinvent database user, your first important choice is therefore to determine which system model you want to use, according to the goal and scope definition of your project The system model “Allocation, ecoinvent default” uses the same attributional approach as ecoinvent version The other main system model is “Substitution, consequential, long-term“, using substitution (also known as ‘system expansion’) to substitute by-product outputs and taking into account both constrained markets and technology constraints More system models are or will be made available for specialized use, e.g “Allocation by revenue”, a model consistently using economic data for allocation It is vital to be aware of which system model version you are using in your projects, and to communicate this openly when talking about results based on these data See Chapter 14 for more information on the system models provided in ecoinvent version 3, and for recommendations on which system model to choose for different application areas 1.2.2 The linking of datasets into system models To allow the application of different system models, the underlying ecoinvent database service layer (see Chapter 3) has been expanded with the ability to automatically create the system model implementations out of the unlinked ecoinvent datasets For the ecoinvent database version 2, data providers had to specify where their input of e.g cement came from Sometimes, country-specific consumption mixes were created, but often the sources were directly linked to the consuming process For ecoinvent database version 3, it is sufficient to say where an activity is located, e.g USA, to allow the database service layer to determine that the input of cement must come from the U.S market activity dataset (basically an extended consumption mix, now available for each product in the database), which describes the origins of cement consumed in the U.S The inputs to the market activity dataset are calculated from the production volumes of the various cement-supplying activities located within the boundary of the market, i.e USA The database service layer can calculate both the average supply and – using additional information on the technology level provided in each supplying dataset – the unconstrained supply, as used in consequential system models Market activities also include the transport types and distances required to supply a specific product, simplifying the situation for data providers and allowing an easy, centralized way of updating the ecoinvent-report No Annex A The boundary to the environment  Following the principle of management, each individual type of litter (PET bottles, alu cans, etc.) should be treated as an exchange to the environment Although specific issues of littering (e.g direct harm to wildlife) may still need special treatment, a more practical solution would be to apply a surface landfill model resulting in the traditional elemental emissions As it appears difficult to determine an unambiguous and practicable boundary between LCI and LCIA, the ecoinvent database applies a pragmatic, exemplary approach, where the centrally managed master list of elementary exchanges (available via www.ecoinvent.org and via the ecoEditor software) provides the definition of the borderline between LCI and LCIA This implies that all activities up to the point where the listed emissions first occur are regarded as included as human activities, while the remaining fate modelling is regarded as belonging to the LCIA The ecoinvent Editor for Exchanges with the environment is thus responsible for the smooth linking to the available LCIA methods, ensuring that no gaps or overlaps occur between the LCI and the LCIA phases ecoinvent-report No 147 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) [Note: In the context of the ecoinvent database version 3, inheritance is restricted to geographical inheritance, i.e the creation of local child datasets from a global parent dataset The ecoinvent Centre will perform experiments with temporal and scenario child datasets to investigate the options for expanding the use of inheritance in future versions of the database.] B.1 Reference datasets A reference activity dataset is intended as a dataset that provides data close to the global average for the activity for the most recent year for which data is available The reference settings applied in the ecoinvent database version are:  Geography: Global  Time period: The most recent year (current year or earlier) for which a global dataset covering a full calendar year is available (individually for each activity)  Macro-economic scenario: Business-as-Usual Reference datasets are only defined for transforming and market activities, and are not available for other special activity types B.2 Inheritance rules The ecoSpold data format is in itself not very restrictive in terms of which datasets are allowed to inherit from which In order to ensure consistency of the ecoinvent database, a number of further restrictions are therefore applied:  A child dataset always refers to a parent dataset with the same activity name as the child, using the “parentActivityId” field of the ecoSpold format Also the system model, activity type (unit process or aggregated system, see Chapter 4.15) and special activity type (see Chapter 4.3) cannot be changed from parent to child  A child dataset differs from the parent dataset on one (and only one) of the settings for geography, time period and macro-economic scenario  Temporal child datasets (i.e datasets with a time period setting different from the parent) and macro-economic scenario child datasets (i.e datasets with a macro-economic scenario setting different from the parent) are only allowed for time periods after the current calendar year, and can only be created by the use of database-wide algorithms that are not dependent on a fixed reference year The addition of temporal and macro-economic child datasets can therefore only be added in cooperation with the ecoinvent database administration, and not as individual datasets The inheritance is furthermore limited to the fixed sequence: Reference activity  Geography child  Temporal child  Macro-economic scenario child, with the exception that a Geography child may keep its original parent (the corresponding global dataset) even after a more recent dataset has become the reference activity dataset for this activity This means that:  A geography child (i.e a dataset with a geographical location setting different from the parent) can only refer to a global dataset for the same time period as its parent and geography child datasets can only be available for the reference year or earlier Geographically specific datasets for future years can be constructed from the most recent geographical child datasets as temporal child datasets ecoinvent-report No 148 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance)  A temporal child (i.e a dataset with a time period setting different from the parent) can only refer to a reference activity or the most recent geography child as its parent Temporal child datasets are only available for the reference scenario (Business-as-Usual) Temporal specific datasets for other macro-economic scenarios are constructed from the temporal child datasets as macroeconomic scenario child datasets This allows the construction of time series of datasets for any activity, location and macro-economic scenario  A macro-economic scenario child (i.e a dataset with a macro-economic scenario setting different from the parent) can only refer to a reference activity, the most recent geography child, or a temporal child as its parent The fixed sequence implies that different geographies are allowed to have different temporal resolution and different developments over time, while all macro-economic scenarios using inheritance must have the same geographical and temporal resolution, but can still have different developments over geography and time This also means that inheritance is not used to model technologically similar datasets (e.g lorries with different capacities) outside the context of a geography child Technologically similar datasets are instead modelled with the use of variables, see Chapter 5.7 Ideally, the reference activity dataset is parameterised with the use of variables, before it is applied for inheritance In the ecoSpold format, inheritance is implemented through the use of delta datasets that contain only data on the inheritance and difference of the child as compared to a parent dataset, so that the actual child dataset only occurs when the delta dataset is combined with the inherited content from the parent dataset The ecoSpold format distinguishes ways in which data in a delta dataset is interpreted: A blank field: The value from the parent activity dataset applies Filled-in content: The filled-in value applies, and the value from the parent activity dataset is ignored In text fields of the string type, content may include the text {{PARENTTEXT}}, in which case the field content from the parent activity dataset is included at this place in the filled-in text in the child dataset In fields of the type TTextAndImage, content may include both {{PARENTTEXT}} and {{text_variables}} The latter represents a text variable defined in the parent dataset, which may be redefined by the delta dataset while keeping the rest of the parent text intact This allows easy changes of text parts in child datasets In amount fields with corresponding mathematical relation fields, the latter may include the reserved variable PARENTVALUE referring to the value of the parent dataset For example, the formula PARENTVALUE*0.5 halves the value of the parent amount field Additional advice for data providers: When expressing an amount in a delta dataset, it is important to consider whether it is most relevant to enter the child value as a fixed value (i.e not relative to the parent), or whether the PARENTVALUE variable should be used When the PARENTVALUE relationship is used, it is important to consider whether the relationship is additive or multiplicative For example, a child value of 50 relative to a parent value of 100 can be expressed as PARENTVALUE-50 or PARENTVALUE*0.5 It is important to consider what will happen to the child value if the parent amount is changed If there is no specific reason to assume an additive relation, the multiplicative relation should always be preferred If the child value is believed to be more correct than any relative amount, e.g because it is a measured value, the child value should be entered as a fixed value that will not change with the parent value If the parent field is a mathematical relationship, it is often relevant to re-use this mathematical rela- ecoinvent-report No 149 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) tionship in the child dataset It is important to use the comment fields to explain the rationale behind any entered relationships When data for a specific local activity is available, it is recommended simultaneously to consider the global and the local dataset for this activity and which specific data are most relevant to add to each of these datasets It may be most simple at first to create a stand-alone local dataset with the available data and in a second step split it up in the global parent and the local child, which will then supersede the stand-alone dataset When submitting an edited version of a parent dataset, the consequences for the child datasets will be reviewed at the same time as the edited parent dataset ecoinvent-report No 150 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) Abbreviations AOX BOD5 CED CIF COD CPC CV DM DOC FOB GDP GLO ID IO ISO ISIC KML LCA LCI LCIA NAICS NDI NPP NMVOC PM10 PM2.5 ROW SPOLD TCDD TOC TPM TDS TSS UN UUID XML Adsorbable Organic Halogen Compounds Biological oxygen demand in five days Cumulative Energy Demand Cost Insurance and Freight Chemical oxygen demand Central Product Classification Coefficient of Variance Dry matter Dissolved organic carbon Free On Board Gross Domestic Product Global Identifier Input Output (economic model) International Organization of Standardization International Standard Industrial Classification Keyhole Markup Language Life Cycle Assessment Life Cycle Inventory Life Cycle Impact Assessment North American Industry Classification System National Data collection Initiative Net Primary Productivity (NPP-C: Net Primary Productivity Carbon) Non-methane Volatile Organic Compound Particulate matter with a diameter of less than 10 µm Particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 µm Rest-Of-World Society for the Promotion of Lifecycle Development (www.spold.org) Tetra-chlor-dibenzo-dioxin Total Organic Carbon Total Particulate Matter Total Dissolved Solids Total Suspended Solids United Nations Universally Unique Identifier Extended Markup Language ecoinvent-report No 151 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) Standard terminology used in the ecoinvent network (glossary) Accumulated system dataset: An activity dataset showing the aggregated environmental exchanges and impacts of the product system related to one specific product from the activity Activity: The doing or making something Example: "International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities" Etymology: Latin: actio (“‘doing or making’”) Activity class: Group of activities classified together under a heading in a statistical classification of activities, such as ISIC Addition to stock: By-product or waste with a lifetime in excess of one year See also under Infrastructure Branded dataset: Dataset for a specific brand or a specific company, where the company or brand name is specifically mentioned as part of the activity and/or product name By-product/Waste: Any activity output that is neither a reference product nor an exchange to the environment The ecoinvent database does not discriminate between by-products and wastes Child dataset: Dataset that occurs when a parent dataset is combined with a delta dataset Conditional exchange: Exchange that is only activated for a specified system model Constrained activity: An activity that is limited in its ability to change its production volume in response to a change in demand for its product Consumption mix: The output from a market activity Cost: The expenditure necessary to acquire a product or production factor Delta dataset: Dataset that contains information on the inheritance and difference of a child dataset as compared to a parent dataset Determining product: See reference product Direct requirements table: A transformed supply-use table representing a linear, homogeneous steady-state model of the economy In a “product-by-product” direct requirements table, each column represents a single-product, interlinked implementation of an activity dataset Elementary exchange: Exchange with the natural, social or economic environment Examples: Unprocessed inputs from nature, emissions to air, water and soil, physical impacts, working hours under specified conditions Environment: Surroundings Etymology: French: environ ("around") Exchange: Relationship between a human activity and another human activity or the natural, social or economic environment Synonym: Input or output Good: Product with mass Human activity: Activity performed by humans, machines or animals in human care Infrastructure: Product not intended for consumption, with a lifetime exceeding one year In the ecoinvent database typically modelled as a service, and identified by the property “capacity” or “lifetime_capacity” Synonyms: Capital goods, Investments Inheritance: Passing on of field contents from a parent dataset to a child dataset Intermediate exchange: Product, material or energy flow occurring between unit processes Synonym: Product or waste IO activity dataset: A dataset corresponding to a column in a supply-use or direct requirements table, typically representing the production function of an industry class Lifetime of a product: The period between the time of production and the time of initiating waste treatment of the product ecoinvent-report No 152 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) Make-use table: See Supply-use table Material for treatment: A by-product/waste that no other activity in the same geographical area has as its positive reference product, and which therefore cannot substitute a reference product as an input to an activity Market activity: An activity representing a market for a specific product, mixing similar intermediate outputs from the supplying transforming activities and providing the resulting consumption mix to the transforming activities that consume this product as an input System model: A model describing how activity datasets are linked to form product systems Synonym (input-output economics): Technology model Parent dataset: A dataset referred to by a delta and child dataset as the dataset from which field values in the child dataset are to be inherited to the extent defined by the delta dataset Process: Set of interrelated or interacting activities that transforms inputs into outputs ISO 9000:2005, definition 3.4.1 Product: Good or service output of a human activity with a positive either market or non-market value Example of a product with a non-market value: Household childcare Product system: Collection of unit processes with elementary and product flows, performing one or more defined functions, and which models the life cycle of a product ISO 14040:2006, definition 3.28 Production mix: The production-volume-weighted average of the suppliers of a specific product within a geographical area Reference activity dataset: A dataset representing a default description of an activity intended to be close to the global average for the most recent year for which data is available, when applied as parent dataset for other datasets for the same activity but with other specific geographical location and/or temporal and/or scenario settings Reference product: Product of an activity for which a change in demand will affect the production volume of the activity (also known as the determining products in consequential modelling) Residual activity: Resulting activity when subtracting all available unit processes within an activity class from the supply-use data of the same activity class, for the same year and geographical area Revenue: The income from the sale of a product Service: Product without mass Supply mix: A production mix with the addition of the import of the specified product to the geographical area Supply-use table: A combination of a supply table and a use table, each with activities on one axis and products on the other The supply table stores data on the supply of products from each activity, and the use table stores data on the use of products by each activity Together, the two tables can be interpreted as providing the production function of an activity, i.e what production factors (inputs) are required to produce the outputs of an activity The transpose of the supply table is sometimes referred to as a make table Transforming activity: A human activity that transforms inputs, so that the intermediate output of the activity is different from the intermediate inputs, e.g a hard coal mine that transforms hard coal in ground to the marketable product hard coal, as opposed to a market activity Including extraction, production, transport, consumption and waste treatment Treatment activity: Transforming activity with a reference product with a negative sign, which means that the activity is supplying the service of treating or disposing of the reference product Unit process: Smallest element considered in the life cycle inventory for which input and output data are quantified ISO 14040:2006, definition 3.34 ecoinvent-report No 153 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) Variable: A placeholder for a value for use in mathematical formulas Variable property: A property of an exchange which is 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http://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2005/87-7614-517-4/pdf/87-7614-5182.pdf Weidema et al 2008 Weidema B P., Wesnæs M., Hermansen J., Kristensen T., Halberg N., Eder P., Delgado L (2008) Environmental improvement potentials of meat and dairy products Sevilla: Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (EUR 23491 EN) http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=1721 Weidema et al 2009 Weidema B P., Ekvall T., Heijungs R (2009) Guidelines for applications of deepened and broadened LCA Deliverable D18 of WP of the CALCAS project http://fr1.estis.net/includes/file.asp?site=calcas&file=7F2938F9-09CD409F-9D70-767169EC8AA9 ecoinvent-report No 158 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) Index —A— constrained market, 81 accumulated system dataset, 29, 134, 152 consumption groups, 97 active author, 142 consumption mix, 17, 21 activity dataset, 11 consumption patterns, 97 addition to stock, 98 copyright, 54, 55 administratively isolated markets, 88 correction dataset, 92 allocation, 113 cut-off, 43 allocation at the point of substitution, 114 —D— allocation correction, 113, 131 data generator, 55 allocation property, 38, 113 data quality indicators, 75 attributional, 7, 131, 137, 138 dataset, 11 —B— dataset author, 55 basic price, 23, 38 density, 22, 36, 37 bias in the results, 43 direct links, 18 branded dataset, 67, 81 disaggregation, 15, 40, 68, 108 by-product technology model, 118 downstream activities, 92 —C— dry matter balance, 45 calorific value, 35 —E— capacity, 25 economic causality, 114 capital goods, 25 ecoSpold data format, 2, 9, 103 carbon allocation, 130 editors, 4, 104 carbon flow analysis, 139 elasticities, 82, 84, 125, 126, 127 carbon from the burning of biomass, 35, 49 elemental composition, 34 carbon stored in soils, 35 elementary exchange, 41, 47 child dataset, 39, 56, 106, 148, 149, 152 energy content, 35 CIF = Cost Insurance and Freight, 37 enterprise-internal markets, 18 combined production, 31, 100 export, 88 commissioner, 55 externalities, 46, 53 commodity technology model, 118 —F— compartments and sub-compartments, 62 final consumption, 97 complementary product, 67, 94 FOB = Free On Board, 37 conditional exchange, 82, 85, 112, 126 fossil carbon, 35 confidential datasets, 31 full elasticity of supply, 125 consequential, 7, 12, 33, 126, 137, 138, 153 future waste, 98 ecoinvent-report No 159 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) —G— linking to datasets of future years, 98 GDP, 46 list of names See master files geography child, 148 litter, 52 global dataset, 3, 14, 15, 68 long-term emissions, 99 global variables, 39 —M— —H— macro-economic scenario child, 148, 149 heating value, 35 market activity, 17 household activity, 27 market niche, 21, 30, 60 household type, 97 market segmentation, 19, 20, 30 —I— market trend, 125 identifying fields, 59 mass allocation, 138 impact assessment method dataset, 27 mass balance, 114 impact category dataset, 27 mass flow analysis, 138 indirect land use, 49 master files, 59, 69 industry-technology model, 138 material for treatment, 23, 24, 84, 91, 114 infrastructure, 25, 27 mathematical relation, 39, 100, 149 infrastructure dataset, 25, 50, 98 matrix inversion, 134 input-output analyses, 138 matrix size, 22, 135 internalising an economic externality, 46 monetary balance, 46 international transport, 22 more than one reference product per activity, 80, 85, 118 ISIC classification, 66 —N— isolated market, 86 need satisfaction, 97 —J— nested variables, 39 joint production, 31 non-fossil carbon, 35 —K— —O— Keyhole Markup Language (KML), 14 obligatory product properties, 20, 21, 30, 60, 80, 82, 92 —L— land tenure, 50 open access datasets, 54 land use, 47 operation, 27 language versions, 58 —P— large-scale decisions, 127 packaging, 94 LCI result, 8, 134 parameters, 39 life cycle assessment (LCA), 1, lifetime, 25, 98, 126 parent dataset, 13, 14, 15, 39, 56, 103, 106, 148, 149, 152 link to the local market, 19 PARENTTEXT, 149 linking rules, 110 PARENTVALUE, 149 ecoinvent-report No 160 Annex B Parent/child datasets (inheritance) passive author, 142 substitution (system expansion), 118 pedigree, 75 supply mix, 21 physical causality, 46 system expansion See substitution population density, 63 system model, 28, 136 positioning product properties, 21 system modelling, price, 37, 46 —T— primary production factors, 12, 46 tags, 67 producer’s prices, 23 technology level, 33, 126 product losses in trade and transport, 17 temporal child, 148, 149 product properties, 20 temporal market, 20, 40 product system, 28, 29, 152 text variable, 149 production mix, 21 trade margin, 23 production version, 8, 10, 103, 106, 141 transforming activity, 16 production volume, 32, 112, 126 treatment activity, 23, 114 purchaser’s prices, 18, 23, 38 treatment market, 24 —R— treatment mix, 24 recycling, 25 treatment scenario, 98 re-export, 90 true value, 114, 131 reference activity dataset, 13, 148, 149 —U— reference product, 12 uncertainty, 70, 139 reference scenario, 16, 80, 81, 149 unconstrained suppliers, 112, 125 reference year, 148 universally unique identifier (Uuid), 59, 110 replacement rate for production equipment, 126 use situation, 27 —V— Rest-Of-World (ROW), 68 validation, 103 Rest-Of-World (ROW), 15 value added, 46 review, 106 variable, 39 —S— variable property, 100 short-term changes, 127 —W— single enterprise data, 67, 81 waste definition, 13 small-scale decision, 124 waste treatment, 23 social externalities, 53 wholesale and retail, 22, 23, 105 speciality production, 24, 91 working time, 46 sponsored datasets, 56 ecoinvent-report No 161 ... C O, Wernet G (20 13) Overview and methodology Data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version Ecoinvent Report 1(v3) St Gallen: The ecoinvent Centre © Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories... reliable and transparent inventory data For the development of ecoinvent version 3, the ecoSpold data format has been extended and updated, so while ecoinvent version and version used the ecoSpold data. .. etc., datasets only report the difference to the global dataset The database stores the parent dataset and the difference datasets, and the child datasets are then calculated by combining the parent